The potential of organizations to advance public value goals

Abstract

This article introduces the concept of organizational goal potential, the degree to which an organization can cultivate, prioritize, integrate, and achieve a goal. This concept and a related framework are designed to consider the potential of organizations to advance broad public value goals such as sustainability. The organizational goal potential framework describes the unique context of public value goals in organizations and prescribes a set of strategies that organizations can use to advance these types of goals. To develop and illustrate the framework, this research uses a grounded theory approach and in-depth interviews with sustainability leaders at twenty-one organizations.